Students show they're Hometown Proud

KINGSTON — Dressed in red and white, the students at Archbishop O’Sullivan Catholic School used their young voices to show their hometown pride by singing the national anthem.

The local elementary school is one of the two Kingston schools selected to participate in the Hometown Proud program.

Hometown Proud is a national program that "incorporates teachable moments and a cross-country recording tour featuring thousands of elementary school students from each province and territory singing O Canada together."

Cataraqui Woods Elementary School is the other local school.

To celebrate and commemorate the 50th anniversary of Canada’s Maple Leaf flag, the Department of Canadian Heritage has provided funding for elementary school programs in 2015.

Hometown Music will be travelling to more than 82 Canadian schools, from coast to coast, uniting more than 25,000 young voices and raising awareness of one of Canada’s greatest symbols.

Wednesday was the Kingston stop on the tour, with both schools completing their recording sessions with Rob Hanson from Hometown Music.

Archbishop O’Sullivan principal Lisa Bickerstaffe was thrilled her school was selected and saw the pride in her students.

"I think it’s important to never lose sight of what it means to be Canadian or what it means to be a Kingstonian or what it means to be a member of the Archbishop O’Sullivan School community," Bickerstaffe said. "It’s really taken the big picture and we’ve narrowed the focus, and I’m just thrilled that our students and our school community has had this opportunity because it’s really started the conversation and engaged the students to want to explore."

Each school was asked to select a student to represent the school and put together a brief documentary about their pride in their city and the flag.

Dustin Pasch, a Grade 8 student, was chosen, and he wrote about what Kingston and Canada means to him.

"I am proud to live in Kingston because there is so much to do, and many tourist destinations to see, such as Fort Henry and Martello towers, which have been designated by UNESCO as a world heritage site," Pasch said, while reading from part of his documentary. "I hope you come to our city and like it as much as I do."

In preparation for the recording session, the students have been practising the anthem with a specific recording, provided by Hanson.

"It was a change for us because it’s not our usual recording," Bickerstaffe said. "That was good learning for us because it had a purpose and a meaning. The reason why is that they want our voices to be standardized. That was good for us to realize that there was a reason behind it. It was all about pitch and timing."

"We had to get into the routine of a different national anthem every morning," Pasch said.

The 256 students at Archbishop O’Sullivan were broken into five groups for the recordings, with each group including students from all grades.

"There is a learning piece at the beginning where he speaks about the Canadian flag and our prime minister," Bickerstaffe said.

Along with the chance to be a part of this program, students may get the chance to be a part of a Guinness World Record.

"We were also excited that we were going to be singing to (try to) set a world record of most people singing the national anthem," Pasch said.

The recording tour will end in October in Whitehorse, Yukon, and the final musical product should be released in November or December.